Wednesday, May 01, 2002

The Internet is for Everyone, according to Vint Cerf, past chairman and president of the Internet Society. Designers of Internet standards such as protocols (like myself) are exhorted to keep a number of lofty goals in mind: to design an affordable infrastructure, to allow growth, to increase accessibility, to keep it simple, to protect privacy, to combat abuse. (The most controversial advice is to keep the Internet free from regulation. This has sparked much discussion on Internet standards mailing lists, mostly on intellectual property regulation). Does it reassure you or scare you that designers of Internet protocols take idealistic goals into consideration? For me it's some of each -- I've seen poor protocols that suffered from too much idealism (Internet Relay Chat was designed with an anarchic ideal, and therefore securely authenticating users is not allowed).